Binnington, Blues shut out Blackhawks for fourth win in row

CHICAGO --Jordan Binnington made 30 saves for his 10th NHL shutout, and the St. Louis Blues won their fourth straight, 4-0 against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Sunday.

"Today, I think our team played really strongly in the last two periods," Binnington said. "It feels good to get a shutout and a win. We were really solid. The team did a good job making my job easy tonight."
David Perron scored two goals, and Brayden Schenn had two assists for the Blues (32-14-6), who are 6-0-1 in their past seven games.
"It didn't start out exactly like we wanted in the first," St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. "We were assertive in the first period, but we got better in the second period. Special teams were really good tonight (1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill). We just started playing our hard hockey offensively, forechecking and being hard pucks, battling and working for it and keeping puck possession. We ended up capitalizing on some plays."
Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves for the Blackhawks (19-27-8), who have lost eight of their past nine games at home while being outscored 40-20.
"He stood on his head," Chicago coach Derek King said. "He was unbelievable. He keeps us in the games every night, but that should be motivation right there to get competing and start staying in the battles. It just seemed like we didn't score in the first period when I thought we played pretty good, when we were right there with them.
"We didn't get it. They get one and then we [take on a] here-we-go-again kind of attitude. We just stood still, stopped playing. They woke up and they were winning the battles. We weren't."

Jordan Kyrou gave St. Louis a 1-0 lead at 2:26 of the second period on a quick back-and-forth passing play in front of the net with Schenn.
Pavel Buchnevich made it 2-0 at 6:56 when he scored from the left face-off circle after taking a pass from Robert Thomas, who picked up the puck behind the net.
Perron extended the lead to 3-0 on the power play at 18:08, scoring from the left circle on a circle-to-circle pass from Schenn. He made it 4-0 at 3:04 of the third period from the goal line after an offensive zone giveaway off the face-off from Dylan Strome.
"I like our (power-play) unit. We were put together the last game or two games ago," Perron said. "Every single time we went out there, I felt we created momentum.
"The second [goal], I just kind of jumped on a face-off loss, put it on net and it went in. I think I was the only guy that knew it went in. It was just barely across the goal line."

The Blackhawks were shut out two days after an 8-5 victory against the New Jersey Devils.
"Yeah, obviously, good crowd tonight and couldn't kind of get them going," Strome said. "Just didn't do enough to keep them loud or make them loud. Kind of fell behind and then, you know, that's the way it goes sometimes.
"We just didn't capitalize on our chances. I think we had lots of good looks on a couple of power plays, couple of good chances in the first, they get the lead and we kind of go from there. I think sometimes it feels like you get these chances and they just aren't going in. We kind of got down and couldn't' fight back in it. Disappointing, obviously."
NOTES: Binnington's shutout was his second of the season, with each coming against Chicago (36 saves in 1-0 win Oct. 30). He is tied with Jacques Plante, Manny Legace and Mike Liut for eighth in St. Louis history. … It was Binnington's 85th NHL win, moving him into a tie with Greg Millen for sixth in Blues history. … Blackhawks defenseman Isaak Phillips had two shots, two hits and one blocked shot in 16:47 of ice time in his first game since Nov. 1 after being recalled from Rockford of the American Hockey League on Saturday. … Perron had his first multigoal game since scoring a hat trick Oct. 23 against the Los Angeles Kings. … Blues forward Ivan Barbashev had the secondary assist on Kyrou's goal for his sixth point (goal, five assists) in his past three games. … Schenn has scored 19 points (11 goals, eight assists) in his past 14 games and five points (three goals, two assists) during a four-game point streak. … Blues defenseman Justin Faulk had the secondary assist on Perron's first goal and has scored a goal and eight assists in his past nine games. … Blackhawks forward Josiah Slavin had one shot on goal and one hit in 14:37 after being recalled from Rockford on Saturday.